Kernel overlay

Builds of the vanilla Linux kernel for Nix.

Current releases are regularly pulled from https://kernel.org. Run the following command to see the exact versions:

nix flake show github:andreoss/kernel-overlay

• linuxPackages is an alias for the latest stable release.
• linuxPackages_testing is an alias for the latest mainline release.

Available releases

Version	Package	Date
7.3.0-rc1	mainline	2026-08-30
7.2.2	stable	2026-08-28
7.1.12	stable	2026-08-28
6.18.48	6_18	2026-08-28
6.12.107	6_12	2026-08-28
6.6.155	6_6	2026-08-28
6.1.186	6_1	2026-08-28
5.15.219	5_15	2026-08-28
5.10.268	5_10	2026-08-28

Installation

(Optional) Enable cachix substitutions in nix.settings.

https://app.cachix.org/cache/kernel-overlay

NOTE: This change will only have effect after a `nix-daemon' restart.

  nix.settings = {
    experimental-features = [ "nix-command" "flakes" ];
    substituters = [ "https://kernel-overlay.cachix.org" ];
    trusted-public-keys = [
      "kernel-overlay.cachix.org-1:rUvSa2sHn0a7RmwJDqZvijlzZHKeGvmTQfOUr2kaxr4="
    ];
  };

Add as an input to a flake

{
  description = "OS configuration";
  inputs = {
    ...
    kernel-overlay.url = "github:andreoss/kernel-overlay";
    ...

Enable overlay

 outputs = inputs@{ self, nixpkgs, home-manager, ... }:
   let
     systems = lib.systems.flakeExposed;
     lib = nixpkgs.lib;
     eachSystem = lib.genAttrs systems;
   in rec {
     legacyPackages = eachSystem (system:
       import nixpkgs {
         inherit system;
         overlays = [
           inputs.kernel-overlay.overlays.default
         ];
       });
     ...

By default, this overlay replaces the default kernel package.

To use a specific kernel, set it in configuration.nix. For example:

  boot.kernelPackages = pkgs.linuxPackages_4_14;